The Impact of Alzheimer’s Disease on the Resting State Functional Connectivity of Brain Regions Modulating Pain: A Cross Sectional Study

Monroe, Todd B.; Beach, Paul; Bruehl, Stephen; Dietrich, Mary S.; Rogers, Baxter P.; Gore, John C.; Atalla, Sebastian; Cowan, Ronald L.

doi:10.3233/jad-161187

Cited by 38 publications

(48 citation statements)

References 84 publications

Supporting

Mentioning

Contrasting

Order By: Relevance

“…One possible, yet under studied area for AD biomarkers is pain. AD is well-known to cause changes in brain structures and metabolism (Monroe et al, 2017; Monroe et al, 2018). The hippocampus and prefrontal cortex experience the most brain volume loss with healthy aging; however, in individuals with AD, the entorhinal cortex and hippocampus and the lateral temporal lobe and neocortex have significantly more volume loss compared to healthy individuals (Monroe et al, 2012).…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrative Review of Sensory Changes as a Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease

Romano

Carter

Monroe

2020

Biological Research For Nursing

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Early recognition of Alzheimer’s disease (AD) in the prodromal period has not been robust yet will be necessary if effective disease-modifying drugs are to be useful in preventing or delaying the condition. The objective of this narrative review was to describe the current, evidenced based understanding of alterations in sensory data as potential biomarkers for AD. Review of empirical studies that tested senses as biomarkers for AD and were published in English within the past 50 years was completed. Eighteen empirical studies were identified that met the strict criteria for inclusion, with 12 of these studies being related to the olfactory system. Two studies examined auditory, two examined vision, one examined proprioception, and one examined taste. Thus, only olfaction has been studied to any extent, leaving a clear gap in the literature for the use of other senses. A promising area of research has begun to be reported concerning differences in responses to pain stimuli in AD relative to cognitively normal subjects. Pain is not a single sense like the others but integrates several senses and may allow for use as an early biomarker for AD, as it integrates several brain areas and pathways. Unlike the other senses, simple devices can be used to measure changes in pain perception in cognitively normal adults with genetic predispositions for possible AD, making this potentially useful for clinicians in the future.

show abstract

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Narrative Review of Sensory Changes as a Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease

Romano

Carter

Monroe

2020

Biological Research For Nursing

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

show abstract

“…The current study sample of 14 males and 14 females (≥65 years of age) was a subset of participants from a larger psychophysical study ( n = 80) examining pain in mild to moderate AD relative to cognitively normal people [ 10 ]. Because the aim of the current study was to examine sex differences in moderate cognitive impairment in AD, only subjects with Folstein Mini-Mental State Exam (MMSE) [ 16 ] scores <24 were included from the sample of 80, resulting in a final sample of 28 (14 = female).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Indeed, the likelihood of significant difficulties in verbal communication is far greater when compared to a healthy adult. This vulnerability to inappropriate pain management in people with AD is amplified by recent studies suggesting aspects of heightened pain sensitivity [ 5 ], increased verbal reports of clinical pain [ 3 ], greater degree of pain behavior [ 6–8 ], increased pain processing [ 9 ], and altered functional connectivity in pain processing regions [ 10, 11 ]. However, factors affecting pain perception in patients with AD may exist beyond the effects of the disease itself.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

Sex Differences in the Psychophysical Response to Contact Heat in Moderate Cognitive Impairment Alzheimer’s Disease: A Cross-Sectional Brief Report

Cowan

Beach

Atalla

et al. 2017

JAD

Self Cite

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Background:People with Alzheimer’s disease (AD) report pain less frequently and receive less pain medication than people without AD. Recent studies have begun to elucidate how pain may be altered in those with AD. However, potential sex differences in pain responsiveness have never been explored in these patients. It is unclear whether sex differences found in prior studies of healthy young and older individuals extend to people with AD.Objective:The purpose of this study was to examine sex differences in the psychophysical response to experimental thermal pain in people with AD.Methods:Cross-sectional analysis of 14 male and 14 female age-matched (≥65 years of age, median = 74) and AD severity-matched (Mini-Mental State Exam score <24, median = 16) communicative people who completed thermal psychophysics.Results:There was a statistically significant main effect of sex for both temperature and unpleasantness ratings that persisted after controlling for average and current pain (mixed-effects general liner model: temperature: p = 0.004, unpleasantness: p < 0.001). Females reported sensing mild pain and moderate pain percepts at markedly lower temperatures than did males (mild: Cohen’s d = 0.72, p = 0.051, moderate: Cohen’s d = 0.80, p = 0.036). By contrast, males rated mild and moderate thermal pain stimuli as more unpleasant than did females (mild: Cohen’s d = 0.80, p = 0.072, moderate: Cohen’s d = 1.32, p = 0.006). There were no statistically significant correlations of temperature with perceived unpleasantness for mild or moderate pain (rs = 0.29 and rs = 0.20 respectively, p > 0.05).Conclusions:Results suggest experimental pain-related sex differences persist in older adults with AD in a different manner than those previously demonstrated in cognitively intact older adults. These findings could potentially aid in developing targeted pain management approaches in this vulnerable population. Further studies are warranted to replicate the findings from this pilot work.

show abstract

“…Concretely, bilateral INS, AMY and THA, as well as, ACC were defined with masks from the Harvard-Oxford Atlas. Bilateral dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (dlPFC), SI and SII were defined as described by Monroe et al (2017) from the following Brodmann Areas (BA): dlPFC = BA 9 and 46, SI = BA 1, 2 and 3, and S2 = BA 40 and 44. Finally, as described by Coulombe et al (2017), PAG was defined with a 6 mm sphere centered on MNI coordinates x = 0, y = −32, z = −12.…”

Section: Brain Imaging Analysesmentioning

confidence: 99%

Age-Related Changes in Pain Perception Are Associated With Altered Functional Connectivity During Resting State

González‐Roldán

Terrasa

Sitges

et al. 2020

Front. Aging Neurosci.

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

Aging affects pain experience and brain functioning. However, how aging leads to changes in pain perception and brain functional connectivity has not yet been completely understood. To investigate resting-state and pain perception changes in old and young participants, this study employed region of interest (ROI) to ROI resting-state functional connectivity (rsFC) analysis of imaging data by using regions implicated in sensory and affective dimensions of pain, descending pain modulation, and the default-mode networks (DMNs). Thirty-seven older (66.86 ± 4.04 years; 16 males) and 38 younger healthy participants (20.74 ± 4.15 years; 19 males) underwent 10 min' eyes-closed resting-state scanning. We examined the relationship between rsFC parameters with pressure pain thresholds. Older participants showed higher pain thresholds than younger. Regarding rsFC, older adults displayed increased connectivity of pain-related sensory brain regions in comparison to younger participants: increased rsFC between bilateral primary somatosensory area (SI) and anterior cingulate cortex (ACC), and between SI(L) and secondary somatosensory area (SII)-(R) and dorsolateral prefrontal cortex (PFC). Moreover, decreased connectivity in the older compared to the younger group was found among descending pain modulatory regions: between the amygdala(R) and bilateral insula(R), thalamus(R), ACC, and amygdala(L); between the amygdala(L) and insula(R) and bilateral thalamus; between ACC and bilateral insula, and between periaqueductal gray (PAG) and bilateral thalamus. Regarding the DMN, the posterior parietal cortex and lateral parietal (LP; R) were more strongly connected in the older group than in the younger group. Correlational analyses also showed that SI(L)-SII(R) rsFC was positively associated with pressure pain thresholds in older participants. In conclusion, these findings suggest a compensatory mechanism for the sensory changes that typically accompanies aging. Furthermore, older participants showed reduced functional connectivity between key nodes of the descending pain inhibitory pathway.

show abstract

The Impact of Alzheimer’s Disease on the Resting State Functional Connectivity of Brain Regions Modulating Pain: A Cross Sectional Study

Cited by 38 publications

References 84 publications

Narrative Review of Sensory Changes as a Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease

Narrative Review of Sensory Changes as a Biomarker for Alzheimer’s Disease

Sex Differences in the Psychophysical Response to Contact Heat in Moderate Cognitive Impairment Alzheimer’s Disease: A Cross-Sectional Brief Report

Age-Related Changes in Pain Perception Are Associated With Altered Functional Connectivity During Resting State

Contact Info

Product

Resources

About